Dave Coley has watched the tapes too many times to count. Eric McAlister has, too.

Each season seemed like the season. Each March seemed like the March in which Stony Brook would make its first NCAA Tournament. Each time the Seawolves fell short, continuing a string of heart-wrenching losses in the conference tournament.

“They’re tough, especially when you go back and watch the tape over and over,” said McAlister, a fifth-year senior. “If I did one thing differently, you never know the outcome. They’ve been tough to get over, but you learn a ton from them, too.”

McAlister has been part of three Stony Brook squads to enter the America East Tournament as the No. 1 seed, including one that had a home loss to rival Vermont in the 2012 title game. In their lone losing season, the Seawolves were two points short of the NCAA Tournament, falling in the final seconds of the 2011 championship game against Boston University.

Next weekend, the Seawolves head to Albany for the conference tournament, returning to the scene of last season’s last-second semifinal shocker to the Great Danes.

“Those games are always in the in the back of your mind when you enter the tournament,” said Coley, a senior guard. “The motivation, the anxiety; it’s through the roof, because you work so hard to win 20 games and you can go to the tournament and get let down. When you’re entering that tournament, it’s a whole different ball game. I’ve tried to instill that in the young guys. Leave it all out there and don’t hold anything back.

“Playing in the tournament, you got to have a different mindset to do whatever you need to do to win and advance.”
Stony Brook finishes its regular season on Sunday, having already secured the No. 2 seed in the tournament. It is one week away, but too far away for coach Steve Pikiell to begin talking to his players about it.

“Last year I had five seniors, I could talk about down the road. They kind of got that, but this year we start two sophomores and one freshman,” Pikiell said. “We talk about one game. It’s a different approach. This group is different than ones in the past. We keep it simple.”

The conversation can wait because it will come soon enough. It isn’t hard for the ninth-year coach to remember when such a scenario was something he couldn’t talk about, let alone think about.

After inheriting in 2005 a program on probation, which had just six seasons of Division I experience, Pikiell went 4-24 in his debut season, followed up by two more single-digit win seasons.

“People had been running around the track forever and they’re like 100 laps ahead of you,” Pikiell said. “We just got on the track. … I think the first six years we didn’t know we were in Division I.”

Soon the Seawolves caught up, capturing three regular-season titles while going 104-54 in the past five seasons. Despite multiple seasons proving themselves as the league’s best, one bad game would redefine four great months.
Pikiell has remained remarkably composed after each loss. It doesn’t gnaw at him. He isn’t worried because it will happen. He doesn’t see another possibility.

“We’ve done 99 things out of 100 and everyone’s gonna talk about the one thing we haven’t done, but it’s tough in one-bid leagues,” Pikiell said. “We’ve only been here for 12 years in Division 1, Northwestern has been swinging for like 85 years.

“I’m just proud that we’re at the point that we’re competing for league titles every year. It took a lot to get that point. One of these years we’re gonna have that run and cut the nets down. I’m very confident in that. I tell the guys, when we go there, we’re gonna knock the door down and go a few times.”

Games of the Week

Columbia at Harvard, Saturday, 7 p.m.: The Lions were three games back of first place entering the weekend — with four games remaining — and unlikely to have a shot at winning their first Ivy League title since 1968, but this rematch of one of season’s best games is one not to miss. First-place Harvard won, 88-84, in double overtime in Manhattan on Valentine’s Day.

DePaul at St. John’s, Sunday, noon: This is no guaranteed win for the Johnnies, who lost at the ninth-place Blue Demons in January. The Red Storm’s recent 9-1 stretch proved they can beat any team in the country, but after two straight losses, one more would make a Big East Tournament title their only chance at an NCAA Tournament berth.

Canisius at Manhattan, Sunday, 4:30 p.m.: In the regular-season finale, two of the MAAC’s top teams will get a look at what could be a conference semifinal or championship matchup in Springfield, Mass., next weekend. George Beamon, Mike Alvarado and Rhamel Brown — the only trio in Manhattan history to score 1,000 career points from the same class — will play their final home games.